For January, we reached out to writer, theater critic, cultural editor, columnist and PEN Turkey president Zeynep Oral. She prepared a list for young readers. Enjoy!
1. Clarissa P. Estes / Women Who Run With The Wolves
For men and women to get to know each other… For women to recognize the limitless power and creativity within them, also gain the ability to recognize the same thing in others… To gain a new perspective towards tales, myths and tellings from the past… a sourceful book…
2. Nâzım Hikmet/ Human Landscapes From My Country (and rest of his poems)
To seize the power and infinity of poetry… to see how rich and marveolus Turkish language is… to see how magnificent and horrifying humanity is… to praise love, resistance, brotherhood, equity, peace and wherever you are in the world, to raise a voice against inequality, violence, pressure, war… and to believe in the power of literature which is capable of doing these…
3. Franz Kafka/The Trial
To have a word to say about current occasions in Turkey…
4. Antoine de Saint Exupery / The Little Prince
To remember diminishing innocence and values that make us “human”…
5. Edited by: Umberto Eco / History of Beauty and On Ugliness
To have a think about the world of art which comes from way past and will remain for eternity, to question, comment andexercise the mind…